Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Soldiers families are "the enemy"

Or could it be the people who have been footing the bill for this fascist occupation of the middle-east. Well we will see how the trial of the 9-11 perpe-trators goes, when convicted every bill appointment and act committed by Bush or his administration needs to be removed for lack of public trust. Then we can see how Bush likes the other end of an execution.

US soldiers in Iraq reacted with dismay yesterday after the Pentagon blocked their access to websites including YouTube and MySpace, used widely to send and receive messages and pictures to loved ones at home.

The Pentagon said the decision had been made for security issues - to protect sensitive information being seen by the enemy - and to reduce drag on the military's bandwidth ability.

Soldiers said the move would hit morale and cut off a crucial link to family and friends.

In a separate move, the Pentagon also introduced new regulations clamping down on blogs by soldiers. Troops must now have any proposed blog site, and its content, previewed and approved.

The Pentagon said that soldiers were still permitted to use personal laptops and non-military computer servers to access sites including YouTube and MySpace (the social networking website owned by News Corporation, the parent company of the publisher of NEWS.com.au), but Pentagon computers and networks are the only ones available to many troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

One sergeant from Arizona, speaking in Baghdad, said: "It will bring morale down. This is how a lot of people keep in touch with family and friends.

"The average age of soldiers out here is in the 20s. They grew up with emails and they have got used to shooting off a message and getting a quick reply from their children, families and friends.

"Not every soldier has their own personal laptop, and not every FOB (forward operating base) has commercial access to the internet. It will affect them mostly."

Another soldier said: "That sucks. MySpace is how I communicate with my wife."

Since last year, YouTube has been used by Iraqi insurgents and the US military as part of the wider propaganda battle over the war.

Insurgents have posted videos of attacks on US troops, while the Pentagon has posted videos showing US forces defeating insurgents and befriending Iraqi civilians.

Noah Shachtman, who runs a national security blog for Wired magazine, said the restrictions on blogging and access to websites seemed intended to stop soldiers circulating bad news but could also prevent them from providing positive reports from the field.

"This is as much an information war as it is bombs and bullets," he said. "And they are muzzling their best voices."

The announcement was made by General BB Bell, commander of US forces in Korea.

"This recreational traffic impacts on our official DoD (Department of Defence) network and bandwidth ability, while posing a significant security challenge," he said.